World War II saw the skies buzz to life with swarms of aircraft of
all kinds, which took to the heavens to seek out and decimate the enemy.
During this epic war, countless airborne missions were carried out to
deal death around the world and add their own brand of hell to an
already hellish conflagration of hostilities that held the world in a
state of seemingly unending battle. The numerous plane wrecks from the
era that dot the countryside and rot at the bottom of the sea are
testament to this violent time of aerial warfare, yet are there cases
when these planes don’t stay down as was thought? Can these aircraft
somehow defy their fate to rise up and dutifully continue their missions
even after death and the fading memory of their era from the public
consciousness? The world has many reports of just such strange
occurrences; spectral or ghostly planes which allegedly fly about
overhead on mysterious errands for some unknowable purpose. One hotspot
for these phantom aircraft is the United Kingdom, where for years there
have been persistent reports of long dead WWII planes that seem to have
transcended destruction, death, and indeed time itself.The presence of planes from the Second World War in the United
Kingdom is in itself no particularly strange. During the heat of World
War II, there were several areas throughout the region which were home
to Allied airfields or used as testing grounds for bombers in
preparation for real missions against the enemy. Indeed, there are
certain areas of the countryside here that are littered with the
wreckage of WWII era bombers that crashed to their doom for one reason
or another. One area known as Ladybower Reservoir, which was used as a
testing ground for bombers, is strewn with wrecked aircraft, and another
place notorious for the derelict remains of crashed planes is Howden
Moors, in the Peak District northwest of Sheffield, which was home to
several Allied airfields and features the remains of at least 50
aircraft scattered about its landscape. Yet for all of these broken
husks of long lost planes, there are also persistent reports of phantom
aircraft prowling the skies above various areas of the UK that seem to
suggest that some of these downed planes have refused to remain dead and
are still very much in service.One of the most commonly sighted types of ghost plane is the Avro
Lancaster bomber, which was a heavy, highly versatile four-engine bomber
that was the most extensively used, most high profile, and indeed most
feared type of bomber in the Royal Air Force’s arsenal during WWII.
During the course of the war, the Avro Lancaster was a tireless
workhorse, flying over 156,000 sorties, many of these perilous night
missions, and raining 600,000 tons of fiery death upon the enemy.
Although the Avro Lancaster was once a fairly common sight in wartime,
it was put out of service in the 1950s, which makes it all the more odd
that they should still be mysteriously seen flying around over the
countryside.One area plagued by mysterious Lancaster bombers is the previously
mentioned Ladybower Reservoir area, located in the Upper Derwent Valley
of Derbyshire, England. The forlorn, desolate hulks of crashed aircraft
dot the landscape here and the skies above seem to be the haunt of a
mysterious, ghostly WWII era plane commonly described as a Lancaster
bomber. The plane is often sighted circling above the area, or making
quick runs through the valley, sometimes flying low enough to profoundly
startle eyewitnesses, before seeming to vanish into thin air. In at
least one report, a Lancaster bomber was seen to fly low over a hill and
crash spectacularly, with the fiery devastation and smoke visible from
afar, yet when the eyewitness went over the hill to investigate there
was no sign of any crash nor indeed any plane at all. Interestingly,
there were two high profile crashes of bombers in the exact same area as
this sighting during WWII. One was a bomber named Vicky the Vicious Virgin,
which crashed here after 3 years of active service in the war on a
routine training run on the 18th May, 1945, and the other was a United
States Air force Dakota which fatally crashed here in July of 1945.
Phantom planes are not the only weird occurrence in the Ladybower
Reservoir area, with strange lights in the sky often reported from here
as well.

Avro Lancaster bomber

Another apparent hotspot for sightings of ghostly bombers is the A44
roadway, in the vicinity of Eisteddfa Gurig Farm at the base of
Pumlumon, which is the highest point of the Cambrian Mountains in Wales.
Ghostly Lancaster bombers have been spotted here for many years. In one
report from a motorist named Shelley Hobbs, a bomber was seen to fly so
low it seemed sure to crash, yet it bizarrely made absolutely no sound.
The mysterious plane careened recklessly around a hillside, obviously
about to smash into the ground, but when the driver rounded the bend
around the hill there was no sign of the plane. The witness was
perplexed as to why such a heavy bomber would be flying so low in hilly
country, why there was no wreckage when it could not have possibly
missed the hill, and why the aircraft had been so unsettlingly silent.
In another sighting from the very same area by a Paul Willenhall, a
bomber was seen on 15th March 2007 as the man was driving along the A44
between Llangurig and Aberystwyth. In this case the aircraft was
reported as flying only 15 feet above the ground across the road at
explosively high speed and seemingly doomed to crash, yet when the
motorist passed by and looked in the rearview mirror, fully expecting to
see debris and carnage, the plane had simply vanished. Again it was
reported that the aircraft was completely and utterly silent. In an
interesting detail, the slopes of Pumlumon happen to harbor the
scattered wreckage of a WWII era bomber.Phantom Lancaster bombers have been seen in many other areas of the
United Kingdom as well. One such ghostly aircraft was seen in 1964, in
an area north of Aberystwyth. The witness claimed that he was in a car
driving towards his cottage on Bow Street when he witnessed what he
described as a “a whitish ghost-like bomber – almost certainly a
Lancaster” descend from the clouds and head west at an estimated
altitude of 150 feet, after which it made a sharp bank over the Plant
Breeding Station and go south before disappearing behind some hills.
Eerily, the mysterious bomber remained completely silent the entire
time, despite the fact that Lancasters were known for having extremely
loud, rumbling engines.Another sighting was made by a retired police officer in the area of
Loch Lomond, Scotland. The man reported that in his days before becoming
a police officer, he had been out camping near the Loch with his
girlfriend and another couple in June of 1965. They had been driving for
a long time and decided to stop the car and take a break, during which
time they made their way to a secluded beach. The weather was reported
as overcast and an ominous mist had formed over the Loch which rose
around 100 feet over the water. As the eyewitness was loading his camera
to take some pictures of the scenery, he was startled by a sudden,
deafening roar which echoed over the Loch and when he looked up to see
what the commotion was he saw what appeared to be a Lancaster bomber
emerge from the mist, scream bombastically by overhead, and then vanish
back into the mist once more. When the terrified man ran to see what his
friends had thought of the incident, all of them denied having heard or
seen anything at all. The witness really seemed to recall the
uproarious commotion the plane created, showing that the phantom
aircraft are not always so totally quiet.Other sightings are more recent. On 15 August 1995, a phantom
Lancaster bomber was seen by a father and daughter as they drove towards
a place called Scammonden Bridge. The aircraft was reported as spewing
billowing clouds of smoke as if it were heavily damaged, yet when the
witnesses drove under the bridge and came out the other side the plane
was nowhere to be seen even though it still should have still been
plainly visible. The bomber in this case was reported as making no
noise.In 2004, there was a rash of sightings that were reported from the
area of Barnoldswick and published in a series of articles in The Craven Herald.
The first of these accounts was reported in January 23, 2004, by a
Moira Thwaites, a retired policewoman, and her husband, Malcolm
Spensley. The couple alleged that they had been driving along Skipton
Road at around 11.20am and had been approaching a Rolls-Royce factory in
Bankfield when the incident occurred. There had been an unseasonable
amount of fog and mist enveloping the area at the time, and the two
reported that out of this thick mist there suddenly appeared a massive,
four-engine heavy bomber which was grey in color and completely silent.
The mysterious plane darted from the bank of mist so low that the two
witnesses were sure it would plow into nearby houses, but the impact
never came and the plane disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared.
Mrs. Thwaites said of the bizarre event:

It was so low I fully expected it to hit us, or at least
hit the houses near the Bankfield site. We both fully expected to at
least hear the impact of a crash, but there was nothing. And when we
both looked back there was nothing. Whatever it was had vanished. There
wasn’t a sound from the engine at all. It was really weird, but we both
know what we saw and I just wondered if anyone else had reported seeing
anything.

This sighting would be followed up that week by a deluge of similar
sightings from all across the area, all of which described the same
basic thing; a dark grey bomber with no apparent markings, four engines,
and completely silent despite the fact that the propellers could
usually clearly be seen to be spinning. Most eyewitnesses were positive
it was a Lancaster. The spectral plane was often reported as setting
itself on a collision course with houses or hills only to vanish before
impact, leaving witnesses startled and speechless. Many eyewitnesses who
called in reports claimed to have seen the mystery plane on the very
same day as Thwaites and her husband. An aviation enthusiast and expert
on aerial phenomena, Dave Cooper, speculated that the odd sightings
could have something to do with the copious electrical energy emitted by
the Rolls-Royce factory in the area.On Friday 24 February 2006, there was another report of the mystery
Lancaster flying low near a small airstrip in Barnoldswick that had been
used as an emergency landing strip during WWII. The plane’s propellers
were reportedly spinning yet it did not make a sound. When it was
suggested to the 70-year-old witness that he may have seen a more modern
large propeller-powered aircraft such as a Hercules transporter, he was
quick to dismiss this and point out that he had served in the war and
knew what a Lancaster and Hercules looked like. He remained adamant that
he had seen a Lancaster and that it had been no modern plane.
Interestingly, this airstrip was the site of a rather baffling report of
a Lancaster that was seen to actually come in for a landing, after
which authorities quickly moved in to seal off the area. It is unclear
if this had anything to do with the mysterious ghost plane or if it was
merely some sort of historical commemorative event, but the complete
lockdown of the airstrip by police upon landing is certainly curious.In addition to the various sightings of phantom WWII aircraft over
the United Kingdom, there has even been at least one report of an actual
entire ghostly landing craft lurking offshore here. In October 1959, a
500 ton landing vessel was spotted off the Devonshire coast that was
described as flying the Free French flag of World War II. Since the
enormous ship seemed to be in distress, several vessels were launched to
rush to its aid, but as they approached the gigantic landing vessel
seemed to simply fade out of existence, drifting into a bank of fog and
vanishing despite extensive efforts to locate it.There has been a range of theories posited for what could be behind
these sightings of ghostly WWII era bombers. One suggestion is that
witnesses are merely seeing more modern aircraft that could then be
misidentified for a Lancaster, yet the Lancaster had a very distinctive,
unmistakeable design and some witnesses who are familiar with aircraft
strongly dismiss this possibility. Even eyewitnesses who do not know
much about airplanes have insisted they have specifically seen WWII
Lancaster bombers when shown photos of the planes. Another possibility
is that people are seeing historical aircraft that are being flown for
commemorative events, but many of the sightings have occurred on days
when no such event was taking place and it still does not explain the
complete silence the phantom planes exhibit. Lancasters were extremely
and unmistakably loud, so how do we explain this detail?

Lancaster bomber

In an attempt to come to some sort of understanding of this
phenomenon, other theories branch out into more supernatural fringe
areas. One commonly postulated idea is that there are events known as
“time slips” in which long passed, historic events converge upon our
time and result in us witnessing things that happened decades or even
centuries ago through some sort of rift in the fabric of space and time
itself. Similarly, it has been speculated that these events may have
become imprinted upon these areas like a memory, and so past events, in
this case WWII missions run by bombers, may occasionally play out in
front of our eyes in modern times almost like a film being projected
onto a screen. These sorts of historical imprints are typically
associated with places that have experienced tragedy or hardship, and in
fact are sometimes blamed for various ghost sightings so this would fit
in with the debris of numerous WWII era planes crashed and strewn about
the region, and the hellish quality of the Second World War to begin
with. Or could it be that for some reason or other there is something
poking through here from another dimension to impose itself on our
reality somehow, perhaps pushing through some thin spot between
realities from time to time? Could it even be that these planes and
their crews were so imbued with purpose and hate for the enemy that they
have somehow kept going, unaware that they are dead or even that the
war is over, like some lost Japanese soldier on a remote Pacific island
who continues to fight long after hostilities ended unbeknownst to them?Although World War II is long over, it seems that perhaps for
whatever reason something has maybe carried over, and that history could
somehow be seeping into the present. Or perhaps this is all nothing,
simply something as basic and mundane as an illusion, misidentification,
or outright exaggeration. We cannot be sure of what causes these
sightings or what lies at the heart of this phenomenon, be it a natural
mundane explanation or something more paranormal, but we can be sure
that many reliable witnesses from all walks of life continue to see
these mystery phantom planes. As long as the sightings continue, perhaps
there is worth in pondering the origins of such things and even
considering that maybe history never really dies, but rather stays to
haunt us, perhaps even to remind us of where we’ve been and where we may
be headed.